For Susan (and all my children) on discerning false christs and our responsibility to seek the true Christ

Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah: and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He said unto them, But who say you that I am?

John Calvin writes on Matthew 16:14, 15:"This does not refer to the professed enemies of Christ or to heathenish despisers but to the more healthy and sound part of the people and as it were the choice flower of the Church. For the disciples mention only those who speak well of Christ; and yet, although the truth was set before them, none of them reached towards that mark, but they all melted away into their dreams. From this we can see how weak is the human spirit, which not only can conceive of itself nothing right and true but even fabricates errors out of true principles. . . . error often begets error. . . . But although the Jews were divided in this way by Christ's coming, yet such a variety of opinions should not hinder the godly from desiring the pure knowledge of Him. For if anyone used this as an excuse to give himself up to sloth and neglected to seek Christ, even by our judgment there would be no excuse for him. Much less would he escape God's judgment if he shrank from Christ because of the sects or made the false opinions of men a reason for contempt and not deigning to give himself to Christ.
Here Christ distinguishes His disciples from the rest of the crowd. And this makes it all the more absurd, however much others may reject it, that we should be distracted from the unity of faith. For whoever give themselves simply to Christ and do not try to mix anything from their own head with the Gospel, shall never lack sure light. But we have to be careful and vigilant in keeping firmly to Christ while the whole world slips away into its inventions. As Satan could not take from the Jews the conviction they held from the Law and the prophets about the coming of the Christ, he transfigured Him in all sorts of ways, and , so to say, cut Him into pieces. Then he put forward many fictitious Christs, that the true Redeemer might be lost. Afterwards with the same tricks he did not cease either to tear Christ asunder or to give Him a different appearance. Therefore, among the confused and discordant voices of the world we must always let sound in our ears this voice of Christ which separates us from wandering and erratic men, so that we many not go with the multitude and our faith may not be tossed about among the contrary waves of opinions."